Fall From Innocence
by ChristineTheStrawberryGirl
Summary: Rewritten! Ellie, a girl two years older than our favourite boys, tags along on their adventure to find a dead body.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: So I've decided to redo this whole story because this was my first fanfiction and I wasn't exactly clear on what to expect. Besides, I think that I can make it run a whole lot smoother. So, here it is!

**Chapter One**

_The people that you're young and stupid with are the people that live in your heart forever._

Ellie Montgomery entered the treehouse that her friends often hung out in and saw Teddy, Chris, and Gordie playing a card game. The only one of the guys to even notice her come in was Teddy, as the other two were engrossed.

"Well if it isn't Michelle," Teddy said, smirking.

Michelle was Ellie's first name and she absolutely hated it. The only person that called her by that name was her mother.

"Hello Theodore," Ellie said brightly as she sat against the wall and began reading one of the many detective magazines that they guys had stored there. She didn't read it, however. Instead she began reliving the conversation she had had with her mother earlier that morning.

Louise Montgomery had begged her daughter to wear dressed more often than on Sunday but her attempt was in vain. Ellie had refused and ran out of the house soon after that. Ellie didn't see anything wrong with the way she dressed. Sure, it wasn't like the way most girls dressed, but she was comfortable.

Her shoulder length red hair was almost always pulled back into twin French braided pigtails. Her everyday clothes consisted of blue jeans, an undershirt, a halfway buttoned up plaid shirt, and black hightops.

_Ellie was the only girl we hung around with. Not a single one of us knew much about her, but she was always the second one we turned to. She was second only to Chris. She was like our second mother, always telling us to be careful and offering encouragement. A good two years older than us, no one knew why she hung around with us, especially the four of us._

_Her older brother Will had been in the jeep with Denny during the accident and he was still in a coma. The two of us shared a bond that no one else could understand, but we never spoke of what had happened._

"How do you know a Frenchman's been in your backyard?" Chris asked.

Ellie rolled her eyes behind her magazine while Teddy warned that he was French.

"Your garbage cans are empty and your dog's pregnant," Chris answered his joke and he and Gordie started to laugh hysterically.

"Didn't I just say that I was French?" an offended Teddy asked.

It was when they shared jokes that Ellie felt the most out of place. She was older than them and had a different sense of humor. She often didn't know what to talk about with the four boys and therefore felt awkward in their presence, but at the same time they comforted her. She knew that they cared for her.

"Gordie's Out!" Ellie heard Teddy yell with glee. "Old Gordie just bit the bag and stepped out the door."

Ellie couldn't help but smile at the look of disgust on Gordie's face. He sat down near her in a huff and she handed him a magazine that was by her feet. The card game continued without Gordie and Teddy, the dealer, knocked at the first hand.

"You four-eyed pile of shit," Chris said angrily.

"A pile of shit has a thousand eyes," Teddy said seriously. Chris and Gordie laughed but Teddy couldn't understand why.

A knock was then heard and Gordie said in a sing-song voice that it wasn't the secret knock.

"Oh, I forget the secret knock," said the voice from outside. "Let me in."

"Vern," all four of them said at the same time, unsurprised. Vern always forgot the secret knock.

"Oh man, you guys aren't gonna belive this," Vern said breathlessly as soon as he had entered. "This is so boss. Oh man, wait'll you hear this, wait'll you hear this. You won't believe it. It's unbelievable. Let me catch my breath. I ran all the way from my house."

Upon hearing Vern say a sentence that sounded familiar to a line from a song, the three boys broke out into 'Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)'.

"Can you guys camp out tonight?" Vern asked as soon as the song was over. "I mean, if you tell your folks we're gonna tent out in my back field?"

"Yeah probably," Chris replied.

"You've got to man, sincerely," Vern said excitedly. "You won't believe this! Can you, Gordie?"

Gordie didn't even look up from his magazine when he said the he would be able to come. Ellie felt sorry for him; she knew that ever since Denny's death his parents had been neglecting him.

"Can you, Ellie?" Vern asked, looking directly at her.

Ellie was surprised, to say the least, that she was even being asked. She thought over her plan before telling that she would be able to camp out: she would tell her mother that some girl she went to school with invited her to a sleepover. Ellie knew that her mother would be so thrilled at her daughter having other female company, she wouldn't even bother to ask questions.

"You guys wanna see a dead body?" Vern asked seriously.

Everyone froze and looked at him.

Glad at having their attention, Vern delved into the story about what he knew about the previously mentioned dead body. He had been under his porch digging for the pennies that he had buried months ago when his older brother Billy and his friend Charlie Hogan came out of the house. Vern overheard them say that when they had stolen a car to take for a joyride with their girlfriends, they found the body of Ray Brower near the Back Harlow Road.

"I know the Back Harlow Road," Teddy said excitedly. "It comes to a dead end right by the Royal River. The train tracks are right there! My dad used to take me fishing for Cossies out there."

"Yeah," Ellie said quietly. "My brother would take me there to swim sometimes."

Vern, however, had not expected his friends to agree to go see the dead body and instantly began questioning whether or not they should go. It took some convincing, but once he was told that finding the body would make him a hero, he obliged.

Teddy, Chris, and Vern were excitedly going over a plan, but Gordie and Ellie held back. They shared a glance and Ellie understood that Gordie wanted to get in on the excitement but he just couldn't. Likewise, Ellie didn't think that anything good could come out of this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_The better part of one's life consists of his friendships._

Ellie was all ready for the journey around noon, but she wanted to buy some food for herself before embarking on the journey. She said goodbye to her mother, who had been increasingly more cheerful since Ellie had told her she had been invited to a sleepover, and left for the drug store.

About ten steps away from the store entrance, Ellie saw Ace Merrill and Eyeball Chambers coming from the other direction. She quickened her pace, hoping they wouldn't see her and to her relief, they didn't.

They were a bit older than her but she had gone to elementary school with them and they were the most feared kids on the playground. Ellie smiled lightly to herself when she realized that the fear she felt for them in kindergarten was still with her nearly ten years later.

After buying some chips and a coke, Ellie left the store but entered into an argument between Gordie and Ace. She saw that Ace had taken Gordie's Yankee baseball cap, something that Denny had given to him.

Ellie, who had managed to stay unnoticed by everyone, walked to where Eyeball was standing behind Ace; she saw that he wore a smirk on his face.

"Can't you tell him to back off, Richie?" She asked, his name rolling off her tongue like acid. She knew he _hated_ his first name.

Eyeball, however, didn't even flinch. "Just shut up and stay out of the way, Shelly," he said.

"You're a real asshole, you know that," Chris said, jumping into the argument between Gordie and Ace.

Ellie instantly looked at the ground, afraid of what she might see if she kept her head up. When she did look up she saw that Ace had pinned Chris to the ground and held a burning cigarette only a few inches away from his face.

"Okay, okay, I take it back," said Chris desperately.

Ace let him go and he and Eyeball turned around to leave.

"Bye girls," Eyeball said to Chris and Gordie. "Lady," he added to Ellie.

Ellie made an ugly face at him when he turned around.

------------------

Once they met up with Teddy and Vern at the train tracks, Chris showed everyone his father's pistol that he had brought. Ellie felt relieved. She had wondered what sort of animals would be out in the wilderness.

"What do we need a pistol for, anyway?" Vern asked nervously.

At this, Ellie turned and looked at him incredulously. Was he serious?

"It's spooky sleeping out in the woods," Chris said matter-of-factly. "We might see a bear or a garbage can."

All of the boys laughed but Ellie looked at them confused.

"I brought a comb," Vern said randomly and Ellie smiled.

"Why do we need a comb," Chris asked.

"Well, if we're going to be on TV, we want to look good, don't we?" Vern replied. "And besides, Ellie might need it later on; she has more hair than the rest of us put together," he added glancing at Ellie.

"Thank you, Vern" said Ellie, who genuinely smiled.

"Yeah, that was a lot of thinking, Vern," Gordie said as he patted him on the back.

Teddy mad a fist and brought it towards Vern as if he was going to punch him and Vern, thinking that he was, flinched.

"Two for flinching," Teddy said happily and punched him twice.

Ellie snapped her fingers at them to get their attention and mouthed 'stop', which they instantly did. The five of them set off, following the tracks.

"Maybe we should just hitchhike," Vern said.

"Negative," Ellie said and continued on walking.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

_Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods._

As they made their way down the tracks, Ellie had to admit that she felt completely out of place. As they sang out the song 'The Ballad of Paladin' she searched her brain for something to talk about.

In truth, she didn't really talk with the boys much except when they asked her for help. She usually just listened or was off in her own little world, which was a much better place to be in her opinion.

"Hey," Vern said nearly as soon as they had finished the song. "I'm kind of hungry. Who's got the food?"

Everyone stopped at the reminder of food. Ellie had forgotten all about what she had bought at the drugstore and, looking around, she understood that no one besides herself had thought to bring anything.

"Oh shit," Teddy said. "Did anybody bring anything?"

All of the boys shook their heads but Ellie told them that she had gotten some food at the drugstore but she insisted on saving it until they were literally starving.

"Well this is great," Teddy said angrily. "What are we supposed to do, eat our feet?" He then almost immediately turned on Vern. "Why didn't you bring something?"

"What am I supposed to do?" Vern said defensively. "I can't think of everything! I brought the comb."

"Oh, great, you brought a comb," Teddy started to yell. "What do you need a comb for; you don't even have any hair!"

Ellie saw that this could soon become one of Teddy's screaming fits, so she inched closer to Vern in case a fight broke out.

"I brought it for you guys," Vern insisted.

"Hey, hey, hey," Gordie said over the arguing. "Let's see how much money we got," he directed and he sat down.

The rest of them sat down in a circle and got their money out. One by one the guys handed their coins to Gordie.

"Let's see, It got a dollar two," Gordie said. "Sixty-eight cents from Chris, Sixty cents from Teddy…" and he looked expectantly at Vern.

Vern, who had held off on giving the guys his money on purpose, quickly handed Gordie the money and looked down at the ground.

"Seven cents, Vern?" Gordie asked disappointedly.

"I haven't found my pennies yet," Vern replied sheepishly while the rest of the guys groaned.

"Well two thirty-seven's not bad," Gordie said after he had calculated the amount of money the guys had given him.

"Isn't there a store near the junkyard?" Ellie asked.

Gordie nodded. "Yeah, Quidachioluo's."

"Train coming," Chris announced as they jumped off of the tracks.

Well, everyone except one got off of the tracks. Teddy remained right on the tracks and was talking about how great it would be to dodge a train. Ellie felt as if she was about to have a heart attack when Chris, luckily, pulled Teddy off just in time.

Ellie watched Chris and Teddy argue while she let her breathing slow down. She had heard about Teddy's love of dodging vehicles but she had never actually seen him try to do it.

Upon arriving at the junkyard gate Gordie noticed all the beat up cars and said that Vern's mom must have been out driving again. This made Ellie genuinely laugh, something that rarely happened.

"Ha, ha," Vern said sarcastically. "That's so funny I forgot to laugh."

The five of them then jumped the fence. Teddy and Vern were pretending as if they were in the military and Teddy yelled back at them to 'move out'. Ellie just continued walking at a normal pace ahead of Chris and Gordie but they soon passed her when they started racing.

The five then sat on the ground against one of the cars, relishing their newly attained water. Ellie closed her eyes and listened to the conversation.

"Hey, have any of you guys been watching the Mickey Mouse Club lately?" Teddy asked.

Ellie was the only one who hadn't. She rarely watched television; most of her time was spent reading or writing in her journal.

"I think Annette's tits are getting bigger," Teddy announced.

"Think so?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, I think he's right," Gordie affirmed. "I've been noticing that the A and the E are beginning to bend around the sides."

"Annette's tits are great," Vern said dreamily.

"Yeah," Teddy started, "but you know who has even greater ones?"

"Who?" Vern challenged.

Teddy looked at Ellie to make sure her eyes were still closed. He then reached his hand out and groped her quickly, making her eyes shoot open.

"What the fuck was that for?" she asked angrily.

Teddy simply laughed. "Ellie's are better than Annette's," he told the guys.

Gordie, Chris, and Vern just stared at Teddy in shock. They couldn't believe that he had just done that. Ellie, meanwhile, was blushing from anger. She quickly moved away from Teddy and sat on the other side of Chris.

"This is a really good time," Vern said once everything had calmed down.

"The most," Chris agreed.

"Yeah," Ellie softly said.

They then started to take the water from their canteens and spit them out onto the ground as if their mouths were water fountains. Teddy, however, spit his on Vern.

"Oh great," Vern said. "Spit at the fat kid. Real good." He wiped his face and then turned to Gordie. "What time is it?"

It was a quarter after one and Vern suggested that they go ahead and get the food.

"You go. You can pick us up on the way back," Teddy told Vern.

"Yeah, I'm staying here too," Ellie said matter-of-factly.

Vern flat out refused to go get the food by himself, but no one else wanted to go with him. They all decided to flip a coin and the odd man out would be forced to go.

"That's you, Gordie, odd as a cod," Teddy laughingly said.

"So's your mother," Ellie spat.

"Flip or eat lead," Gordie mumbled.

All five of them flipped their coins and all five of them got tails.

"Five tails," Vern started nervously. "Oh Jesus man, that's a goocher."

"Oh, that doesn't mean anything," Ellie tried to persuade him.

"No," Vern told them. "A goocher's really bad. You remember when Clint Bracken and those guys got wiped out on Weed Hill in Durham? Billy told me they were flipping for beers and they came up a goocher just before they got in the car. And Bang! They all got totaled! I don't like this. Sincerely."

"You believe Billy," Ellie asked in disbelief. "Your brother Billy?"

"Ellie's right," Teddy agreed. "No one believes in moons and goochers, it's baby stuff. Come on, let's flip again."

Everyone flipped except Vern but Teddy made him get over it. This time, they all got heads except for Gordie, who sighed.

"You lose, Gordie!" Teddy said as he started a laughing fit. "Old Gordie just screwed the pooch."

"Does the word retarted mean anything to you?" Gordie asked seriously.

"Go get the provisions you morphodite," Teddy said.

"Don't call me any of your mother's pet names," Gordie quipped as he stood up.

"Can you guys please shut up," Ellie asked impatiently. This, however, was the wrong thing to say because they then all started on a chant of 'I don't shut up, I grow up. And when I look at you I throw up' which was followed by gagging noises.

"And then your mother goes around the corner and she licks it up," Gordie said.

Ellie smiled up at him for his quick thinking while the boys began to wrestle.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

_Friendship is like a violin: the music may stop now and then, but the strings will last forever__._

After forty minutes of waiting for Gordie to come back, Ellie was beginning to get bored. She quietly got up and began to walk around the junkyard in hopes of finding something to do. But almost as soon as she had gotten up she saw Milo Pressman.

Ellie warned the guys and they ran towards the fence, hoping that Mr. Pressman wouldn't see them and luckily he didn't. As soon as they were all on the other side of the gate, they saw Gordie and motioned for him to hurry.

Milo, however, saw Gordie and sent Chopper after him. Gordie ran like the wind and landed just a few steps behind where Ellie was standing.

"That's Chopper," Gordie said out of breath as soon as he had seen the dog.

The most feared dog in the entire town was no bigger than a Golden Retriever. Ellie laughed to herself and Teddy began to tease Chopper, which caused Milo to get angry.

"Hey, hey," he said as he reached them. "You kids stop teasing my dog. Do you hear me? Sonny, I'll beat your ass for teasing my dog like that!"

At this threat, Teddy scoffed. "Yeah, like to see you try to climb over the fence to get me, fatass!"

Ellie's eyes widened and she knew that this argument would turn out bad.

"Don't call me that, you little tin-weasel peckerwood loony' son," Milo said.

This comment about his father caused Teddy to stop laughing at once. "What did you call me?" He asked in a dangerous tone.

"You heard me," Milo smirked. "I know who you are. You're Teddy Duchamp. Your dad's a loony, a loony up in the nuthouse at Togus. He took your ear, put it to the stove, and tried to burn it off."

"My father stormed the beach at Normandy," Teddy defended. Everyone else just stood there and listened for what they knew would inevitably happen.

"He's crazier than a shithouse rat," Milo pressed on. "No wonder you're acting the way you are, with a loony for a father."

This seemed to be the breaking point for Teddy. He tried to climb the fence so he could beat up Mr. Pressman, but the guys and Ellie were able to drag him off of it. By the time Teddy was safely away from the gate, he started crying and kept repeating that Mr. Pressman 'raked my old man'.

As they rounded a bend and were almost out of sight, Ellie turned back around and called "What exactly did you do during the war, Mr. Pressman?" she asked and made her way over to where the guys were.

Teddy was calmed down by Chris and Gordie, and Vern tried to lighten the mood by starting up 'The Ballad of Paladin' but quickly stopped when he saw everyone giving him stern looks.

"I'm sorry if I'm ruining everyone's good time," Teddy apologized.

Ellie, for one, was not having a good time. They were going to go see a dead kid and that wasn't exactly something that topped her list of fun things to do.

"I'm not sure it should be a good time," Gordie voiced.

"What," Chris asked. "Are you sayin' you want to go back?"

"No," Gordie quickly said. "But, going to see a dead kid, maybe it shouldn't be a party."

Ellie agreed and it seemed like everyone else did too.

"Yeah," Vern said. "Like if he's really bad, like all cut up and blood and shit all over him. I might have nightmares - "

"Come on," Ellie interrupted. She had never thought about what Ray Brower would look like and she certainly didn't want it to be gory.

But Vern kept on. "You know, like all guts and eyeballs all ready to jump and grab…" He was quickly told to shut up.

Even though he had been silenced, Ellie couldn't help but wonder if everything he had said would be true. Would Ray Brower be all bloody and his eyeballs popping out? She had never seen a dead body before and it was starting to make her nervous.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

_The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own._

So, they started back on the tracks once again. Teddy and Vern led the way, followed by Ellie, and then Chris and Gordie behind her. Since Ellie was pretty much directly in the middle, she could hear both sets of conversation. Chris was telling Gordie that he had brought some cigarettes for after dinner; Ellie didn't smoke.

"Do you think I'm weird?" Gordie asked bluntly.

"Definitely," Chris replied.

"No, man," Gordie clarified. "Seriously, am I weird?"

"Yeah, but so what?" Chris challenged. "Everyone's weird." Chris then looked ahead of him to see that Ellie was listening and then added "Especially Ellie."

Ellie smiled at this as she heard Chris ask Gordie if he was ready for school to start. When Gordie said that he wasn't, Chris went on to explain that junior high meant that they would all be split up but Gordie didn't understand.

"It's not gonna be like grammar school," Chris explained. "You'll be taking your college courses, and me, Teddy, and Vern'll be in the shop classes with all the rest of the retards makin' ashtrays and birdhouses."

This made Ellie start to think. What Chris had said was true. Ellie had started the college courses in junior high and she hardly ever saw anyone she knew from grammar school. But then again, she didn't have very many friends. Most of the girls she went to school with were too busy about wearing what was in style and curling their hair. God, she would be starting high school on Tuesday.

"Do you think that Mighty Mouse could beat up Superman?" Vern asked from ahead of Ellie.

Snorting, Ellie picked up her pace so she could hear the conversation in its entirety.

"You don't know nothing," Teddy told Vern. "Mighty Mouse is a cartoon, Superman is a real guy. No way a cartoon could beat up a real guy."

"Actually," Ellie interfered, "pretty much anything you see on television is fake unless it's the news. So, therefore, Superman is not real at all."

"Shut up, Ellie," Teddy ordered.

-----------

Soon they reached a part of the railroad that was raised an easy one hundred feet above the water. Ellie glanced at their projected pathway nervously.

"Any of you guys know when the next train is due," Vern asked hopefully.

"I don't know if trains come down this way anymore," Ellie told him, trying to convince herself. "I think only freights."

"We could go down to the Route 136 Bridge," Chris suggested.

"Are you crazy?" Teddy argued. "That's five miles down the river. You walk five miles down the river, you got to walk five miles back. That could take until dark! If we go across here we can get to the same place in ten minutes."

"But who knows what could happen," Ellie protested.

"Yeah," Vern agreed. "If a train comes there's no wheres to go."

"Sure there is," Teddy said. "We'll just jump."

"There's an idea," Ellie sarcastically shot down.

"Teddy, it's a hundred feet," Chris tried to reason.

"Look, you guys can do around if you want to but I'm crossing here," Teddy said with finality. "And while you guys are dragging your candy asses halfway across the state and back, I'll be waiting for you on the other side relaxing with my thoughts."

"Do you use your left hand or your right hand for that," Gordie asked innocently.

Everyone snorted but Teddy didn't look pleased.

Teddy went across first, then Chris, then Ellie, then Vern, and lastly Gordie. Ellie was about halfway to the other side when she heard Gordie yell that there was a train coming. Ellie ran faster than she thought humanly possible.

When she reached the other side with Teddy and Chris she saw Vern and Gordie with scared faces running for their lives. The train was too close to them for comfort, but Gordie tackled Vern and brought them to the ground just moments before the train would have hit them.

"At least we know when the next train was due," Chris said.

"Very funny," Ellie breathed.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

_Fifteen candles make a lovely light, but not as bright as your eyes tonight. You're only fifteen but you're my teenage queen. You're the prettiest, loveliest girl I've ever seen._

The found a campsite and soon got a fire going. They were all cooking the hamburger meat that Gordie had bought at the store and discussing the day's events.

"Man, that was the all time train dodge," Teddy said fondly. "Too cool. Vern, you looked like that fat guy Abbott and Costello when he saw the mummy."

"I wasn't that scared," Vern tried to convince them.

Ellie scoffed to herself. She then allowed herself to zone out. Her father once told her that she had the soul of a writer because writers always go off into their own world. But Ellie didn't think up of stories like Gordie did; she always thought about her future. Where was she headed? Would she end up like those snobby girls that she saw in her sister's magazine? Would she marry just for money?

Vern poked her lightly and she came back into the present. Everyone had finished their meal and Chris was handing them cigarettes.

"There's nothing like a smoke after a meal," Vern said.

"Yeah," Teddy sighed. "I cherish these moments."

At this, Chris and Gordie burst out laughing and even Ellie couldn't help but grin. What Teddy had said wasn't so much funny as it was cheesy. Too bad neither Teddy nor Vern realized this.

"Can I tell you guys something?" Ellie asked timidly and she continued after all of the guys said she could. "Today was my birthday."

"Shit," Chris exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Ellie shrugged. "I didn't think it was important."

"Everyone's birthday is important," Vern said. "Sincerely."

"So you're fifteen now?" Gordie asked.

"Yep," Ellie said. "How about that?"

"Are you nervous about high school," Vern asked.

"Not really," Ellie replied in a half-truth. "There's really not much to be worried about."

"Are you excited to see your other friends?" Chris asked.

At this, Ellie looked down at the ground in embarrassment. "Yeah," she said quietly. She could see that Chris knew she was lying, but he thankfully changed the subject.

"Hey, Gordo, why don't you tell us one of your stories," He said to Gordie. "For Ellie's birthday," he added.

Gordie was hesitant but after a little convincing, he agreed. He told them all the story of a boy named Lardass Hogan. Ellie wasn't particularly fond of it, but she listened intently. She understood that a twelve year old boy's idea of a good story was far different from a fifteen year old girl's.

"And Lardass just sat back and enjoyed what he had created: a complete and total barf-o-rama," Gordie concluded his story. Everyone cheered loudly.

"Then what happened," Teddy asked once the yells had cleared down.

"What do you mean," Gordie asked.

"I mean, what happened?"

"Nothing happened," Gordie said. "That was the end."

Gordie and Teddy continued to talk about the ending while Chris got his radio out and the Fleetwoods came on.

With everyone else in conversation, Chris came up to Ellie.

"Hey," he said softly as he sat down. "You don't have any friends besides us, do you?" he asked. He didn't know any other way to say it.

Ellie smiled and shook her head. "No, I don't."

"Why?"

"I just don't," Ellie said shrugging. "The kids my age think I'm weird."

"Well so do we but we still hang out with you," Chris joked.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

_We're spinning empty bottles; it's the five of us… I can't resist the day._

"Alright, alright," Gordie called the group's attention. "Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?"

"If I could only have one food for the rest of my life," Vern repeated the question. "That's easy. Pez. Cherry flavored Pez. No question about it."

"Goofy's a dog. Right?" Ellie asked.

"Goofy's definitely a dog." Teddy said.

"I knew the 64,000 dollar question was fixed," Gordie said in trumph. "There's no way anybody could know that much about opera."

"Goofy can't be a dog," Chris reasoned. "He wears a hat and drives a car."

"God," Vern said. "That's weird. What the hell is Goofy?"

Eventually all except Ellie fell asleep. She had always had a problem falling asleep. After what seemed like her lying there forever, a howling was heard and all the boys woke up.

"Oh my God." Vern was the first to speak.

"It's that Brower kid," Teddy said, trying to scare everyone. "His ghost is out walking in the woods." But he only scared Vern.

"Oh, fuck off," Ellie told Teddy once she saw the fear in Vern's face.

At the thought of a ghost walking around the woods, Vern started to pray. "I promise I won't hawk no more dirty books. I promise I won't say no more bad swears. I promise I'll eat all my lima beans." Vern's praying, however, was stopped by Teddy tapping him on the shoulder, scaring him.

"What is it, Chris?" Gordie asked.

"Maybe it's coyotes."

"Probably," Ellie agreed with Chris.

"It sounds like a woman screaming," Gordie said.

"It's not coyotes," Teddy insisted. "It's his ghost."

"It is not, Teddy." Ellie told him sternly. "Stop scaring Vern."

Teddy got up and started to make his way towards the woods. Chris told him to sit back down but Teddy kept insisting that he wanted to see the ghost.

"Just sit down," Ellie hissed. A chorus of howls followed Ellie's order and Teddy stumbled, falling near the fire.

"Maybe we should stand guard," Vern brightly suggested.

"Yeah," Chris agreed. "That's a good idea."

"Give me the gun," Teddy told him. Ellie inwardly snorted. Teddy with a gun would not make her sleep better. "I'll take the first watch," Teddy finished.

Everyone else went back to lying down on their blankets while Teddy stood in front of a nearby tree with the pistol.

"2300 hours, Corporal Teddy Duchamp stands guard. No signs of the enemy. The fort is secure," Teddy said to himself.

Ellie found this to be amusing, but everyone else yelled for him to shut up. Teddy then mimicked 'Taps'. Just as she was about to fall asleep, Ellie heard Teddy once again.

"The dogfaces rested easy in the knowledge that Corporal Teddy Duchamp was protecting all that was dear to them."

"Shut up," Ellie moaned and all was quiet.

Ellie did not get much sleep that night. When it was Vern's turn to stand guard, he kept cocking the pistol at every little noise. Then, when she heard him wake Chris up for him to take guard, Ellie thought that she'd never fall back asleep and just decided to lay there.

She heard Gordie scream lightly in his sleep and could tell when Gordie got out of his blankets and made his way over towards Chris. She heard their conversation word for word. She heard how Chris did want to take the college courses with Gordie, but the school wouldn't allow it because of his reputation. She heard that Chris did take the milk money (even though everyone already knew that) but that he tried to give it back, but the teacher stole the money and bought a new skirt with it, and how if Chris had told his side of the story to the principal nobody would have believed him. She also heard Chris crying.

After lying there for a good two hours, Chris went over to Ellie and told her that it was her turn to take watch.

"If you see something, let us know," Chris told her.

"I'm sure the sound of gunshots'll wake you up," she replied and he smiled.

------------------

It was nearly time for her turn to keep guard to be over and Ellie made her way over to Gordie's sleeping form.

"Gordie," Ellie whispered, but he didn't budge. "Gordo," she whispered again a little louder. He moved slightly. Ellie moved so that she was only a few inches away from his ear. "Goooorrrddiiieee," she whispers even louder.

Gordie stirred and rose from his blankets. "What?" he asked annoyed.

"I love you," she bluntly stated. She saw his confused face and explained. "I don't want to marry you or anything, but I love you.

_Why was she saying this to me? No one besides a relative had ever told me that they loved me. I later found out that she had gone around to all of us and told everyone the exact same thing. Ellie, in her infinite wisdom, told everyone that she loved them because she knew that it would never be like this again. It would never be the five of us ever again._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Once her watch was over, Ellie went back to sleep and was awoken by the freight train like the other guys. After they had all packed up again they made their way on the tracks again, eating a light breakfast.

"Geez, Gordie," Vern sighed as he was eating his breakfast. "Why couldn't you get some breakfast stuff like Twinkies and Pez and root beer?"

"That's what you eat for breakfast," Ellie asked him in amazement.

"Sorry Vern," Gordie replied. I guess a more experienced shopper could have gotten more for your seven cents."

"Besides," Ellie started optimistically. "None of us look like we've missed too many meals. Maybe it'll do us good," Ellie said optimistically.

Eventually they all reached the Royal River and came to a point where the tracks curved away from the direction of the river; they paused, considering to keep following the tracks or cut across.

"Gentlemen, the Royal," Chris announced.

"God, the tracks go way out of the way," Teddy noticed.

"If we cut across the field we'll be there in an hour," Chris told them.

"I think we should stick to the tracks," Vern suggested, not to anyone's surprise.

"I say we go across the field," Teddy argued.

"Field," Ellie stated.

They all turned to Gordie, the only one to have yet given an opinion.

"Gordie?" Chris asked him.

"Yeah," was all he said.

They all ran across the field, and even a reluctant Vern followed after a bit. They came into the woods, only to be met with mud that came up to their ankles.

"I hate this shortcut," Vern whined.

"I hate this shortcut," Teddy mimicked.

Vern lifted his fist as if to hit Teddy, and Teddy flinched. Ellie thought that she had never seen Vern so happy, but his happiness was short lived.

Before Vern could finish saying 'Two for flinching' Teddy hit him twice.

"But you flinched," Vern sighed exasperated.

"I know. Two for flinching," Teddy explained, smiling smugly.

"Could you two please just stop?" Ellie intervened.

The five of them then came across another obstacle. They stood in front of an area of water that went on as far as any of them could see.

"How are we supposed to get across this," Vern asked.

"We use you as a raft," Teddy told him.

"Very funny," Vern replied.

Ellie, however, didn't think Teddy was kidding and told Vern so.

Chris broke a branch off of a tree and saw that the water wasn't that deep and that everyone could walk across. They all started walking, but about three steps into it, everyone fell into a much deeper part of the water.

"I told you we should have stuck to the tracks," Vern angrily said.

Teddy turned to him. "It is just me or are you the world's biggest pussy?"

"I suppose this is fun for you," Vern quipped.

"No. But this is," Teddy said as he dunked Vern in the water.

"Come on, Teddy, act your age!" Chris ordered.

"This is my age! I'm in the prime of my youth and I'll only be young once!"

"Yeah, you're gonna be stupid for the rest of your life," he replied.

Ellie smiled at this and began to make her way to the left of the group as they all started to wrestle. She was swirling and turning in the water when she heard Gordie's voice.

"Hey, Vern, there's something on your neck."

Ellie quickly looked to the boys. They were all piled on Gordie.

"Yeah, right," Vern said. "I'm not falling for that one, Lachance."

"No, Vern, there really is something on your neck," Chris said, his voice startled.

Ellie began to walk towards them when Teddy screamed 'Leeches'. She got out of the water as fast as she could and took her clothes off. Usually, she would have been embarrassed to be in the presence of teenage boys in just her bra and panties, but this was a serious matter.

After everyone got all the leeches off of their back and front and everywhere else, all the boys stared at Ellie. For a second, she had forgotten that she was half naked.

"What," she asked unknowingly, but she didn't get any responses except their eyes bulging out of their sockets.

The staring was soon broken, however, by Gordie saying 'oh shit' over and over again. He pulled out a leech from the front of his underwear. His fingers were bloody and he fainted. Everyone walked towards him.

"Gordie, man, are you okay? Can you hear me? Gordie, are you there?" Chris kept asking.

"Maybe he's dead," Vern piped up; Ellie rolled her eyes.

"He's still breathing," she pointed out.

"He's not dead, you idiot," Teddy told Vern.

"Well I don't know," Vern defended.

"Hey, hey, just cool it you guys," Chris order. "He just fainted. Gordie?"

"God, I never met anybody who fainted before," Vern said.

Teddy looked at him in disbelief. "Maybe he made a bad mistake and looked at your face."

Ellie whacked Teddy on the arm.

"Shut up, Teddy," Chris ordered.

Once Gordie started to come around, Chris told us that we needed to get moving again. They all got dressed and Gordie rested against a nearby tree.

"Maybe we should take Gordie back," Chris said.

"Oh, great Chambers. Now you're turning pussy too," Teddy angrily replied.

"Shut the fuck up Teddy," Ellie practically screamed.

"What's your problem, Duchamp? He had a leech hanging from his balls; he fainted," Chris shot back to Teddy.

"What're you, his mother?" Teddy asked.

"Eat shit!"

"You eat shit!"

Vern entered the fight. "Hey, hey, hey, I think Chris is right. Let's go back."

"Oh, what a surprise! The king of the pussies wants to go back," Teddy spat.

"Stop calling me that!" Vern raised his voice, but Teddy kept pushing. "You four-eyed psycho," Vern said, finally fed up.

Vern was on top of Teddy punching him, with Chris and Ellie trying to break it up until Gordie suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs for everyone to stop it. All motion ceased.

"I'm not going back," Gordie told them simply and he went on.

Everyone decided to follow him.

Getting up, Teddy dusted himself off. "Idiot," he muttered under his breath.

"Shut up, retard," Vern retorted.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

_Sometimes in our lives we all have pain, we all have sorrow. But if we are wise we know that there's always tomorrow._

They followed Gordie back to the tracks and Ellie realized that they were coming dangerously close to the Back Harlow Road.

"Coming through the woods, I bet we saved almost an hour," Chris told.

"See, Vern?" Ellie told him, remembering that he had wanted to stay on the tracks.

"Teddy," Gordie called, stopping a little ahead of them.

"Yeah," Teddy answered when he was next to Gordie.

"Is this the Back Harlow Road?"

"Yeah," Teddy said again.

"That Brower kid must be around her somewhere around here," Chris said. "Teddy, you and Vern watch the left side of the tracks, we'll take the right."

The all started to comb though the tracks, looking for any sign of a kid.

"There he is!" Vern exclaimed, pointing. "I see him! Look, look!"

Everyone made their way over to Vern and saw a shoeless foot sticking out from behind a bush.

_None of us could breathe. Somewhere under those bushes was the rest of Ray Brower. The train had knocked Ray Brower out of his kids, like it had knocked the life out of his body._

"Wow," was all that escaped Ellie's mouth.

"Jesus," Chris whispered. "Let's look for some branches. We'll build him a stretcher," he said once he had regained his voice.

Gordie sat down on a log in front of the bush Ray Brower was under. "Why did you have to die?" he asked.

Ellie knew that he was talking about Denny but didn't want to get involved; she made her way to the other side towards the trees.

"What's the matter with Gordie," Vern asked.

"Nothing," Chris replied. "Why don't you guys just go over there and look for some branches. Okay?"

Ellie followed Teddy and Vern, but she decided against the idea of looking for some branches. She didn't quite understand the point of carrying a dead kid all the way home. She went out towards where Gordie and Chris were sitting, but she stopped. She heard crying noises, and saw that it was Gordie. He was saying that his dad hated him, but Chris calmed him down by saying that he was going to be a great writer some day.

Ellie couldn't help but smile at this. Chris was always the one to go to if you needed comfort. But the voice of Ace Merrill brought her out of her thoughts.

"What the fuck do you know about this," he said.

Ellie quickly made her way over to Chris and Gordie. She felt sure that they wouldn't dare beat up a girl. Right?

And to no surprise, Eyeball soon came out. "Son of a bitch! My little brother!"

Ellie couldn't help but stare a little blankly at him. Thank you Poirot!

"You wasn't planning on taking the body from us, was you boys?" Ace asked.

"Get away, man. We found him. We got dibs," Chris stated.

"We better start running, Eyeball. They got dibs," Ace mocked.

"We earned him, man. You guys came in a car. That's not fair. He's ours!"

"That's not fair, he's ours," Eyeball mimicked Chris. "Well not anymore."

"Oh shut up," Ellie said.

By this time Teddy and Vern had come back from the woods and were standing with Chris and Ellie. "There's five of us, Eyeball. You just make your move," Teddy threatened.

"Oh we will, don't you worry," Ace replied.

Suddenly the rest of the Cobras came over and Ellie couldn't help but feel slightly scared.

"Vern, you son of a whore, you's under the porch," Charlie Hogan said as soon as he saw Vern.

"No, no, I swear! It wasn't me," Vern lamely said.

"You little keyhole-peeping dung-wipe, I oughtta beat the living shit out of you," Billy said as he took of his belt but Vern ran away from fear, and for once, Ellie couldn't blame him for running away.

"Now, you guys have two choices," Ace said entering the conversation again. "You either leave quietly and we take the body, or you stay and we beat the shit out of you – and we take the body."

"Besides, me and Billy found him first," Charlie said.

"Yeah Vern told us how you found him," Teddy said. "Oh, Billy! I wish we had never boosted that car. Oh Billy I think I just turned my Fruit of the Looms into a fudge factory," Teddy mocked in a high pitched voice.

"Oh god," Ellie muttered as she closed her eyes tightly. "Do you ever know when to shut up?"

"That's it! Your ass is grass," Charlie yelled, stepping towards Teddy but Ace held him back.

"Okay, Chambers, you little faggot, this is your last chance. What do you say, kids?" Ace asked.

"Why don't you go home and fuck your mother some more," Chris replied.

Ellie opened her eyes to see what divine chaos would result from that remark and saw Ace take out a switchblade and open it.

"You're dead," he told simply as he advanced upon Chris.

Even Teddy was starting to become scared; he tried to convince Chris that they should leave but Chris wouldn't relent. Ellie just stood there, frozen. She looked like some retard just standing there. Teddy soon ran off towards the direction that Vern had gone and Ellie could tell that Eyeball was starting to get worried because he tried to get Ace to cut it out.

"You're gonna have to kill me Ace," Chris solemnly said.

"No problem," Ace said and he stepped forward, putting the knife on Chris's neck.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

And then, Ellie heard what she would later reflect to be the greatest sound in the whole world: A gunshot. Ellie spun around and saw Gordie with the pistol that Chris had brought.

"You're not taking him," Gordie said.

"Come on kid," Ace tried to convince him. "Just give me the gun before you take your foot off. You ain't got the sack to shoot a woodchuck," Ace said.

"Don't move, Ace. I'll kill you, I swear to God."

Ellie had never seen Gordie so serious or so angry.

"Come on Lachance, give me the gun," Ace tried to reason. "You must have some of your brother's good sense."

Gordie cocked the pistol and aimed it at Ace's face. "Suck my fat one, you cheap dime store hood."

Ace looked back at his gang, his fear subsiding for the moment. "What are you gonna do? Shoot us all?"

"No Ace, just you."

Weighing out his options, Ace saw that it was just best to leave. He started to back away. "We're gonna get you for this."

"Maybe you will and maybe you won't," Chris smugly replied.

"We're not gonna forget this if that's what you're thinking," Ace warned. "This is bigtime, baby." The Cobras left, with Ace the last one out of sight.

Ellie was no longer frozen and had to admit that she felt a bit stupid. Vern and Teddy, seeing that the scuffle was over, came back.

"Are we gonna take him," Vern asked.

"No," Gordie said simply.

"But we came all this way," Teddy protested. "We were supposed to be heroes!"

"Not this way, Teddy," Gordie said. "Give me a hand, guys," he ordered and they all helped cover Ray Brower's body with Ellie's blanket.

_Ray Brower's body was found. But neither our gang, nor their gang got the credit. In the end we decided that an anonymous phone call was the best thing to do. We headed home, and although many thoughts raced through our minds, we barely spoke. We walked through the night and made it back to Castle Rock a little past five o'clock on Sunday morning, the day before Labor Day. We'd only been gone two days, but somehow the town seemed different, smaller._

They all stopped on Main Street.

"Well, I guess I'll see you guys around," Ellie said.

"Not if we see you first," Chris replied.

"Good luck in junior high," Ellie told them.

"Thanks. Good luck in high school," Teddy said.

Ellie shrugged before leaving to go towards her house. After a few steps, however, she turned around, waved, and went back towards her house.


	11. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Ellie sat on the floor of Gordie's room. It was Sunday afternoon; they had agreed two years ago that they would always do their homework together on Sunday. Even though Ellie was in twelfth grade and Gordie only in tenth, she often found that he was able to help her with questions that she had.

After hearing a noise on the windows, Ellie looked up and smiled.

"Look, it's raining," she said and pointed at the window.

Gordie, frustrated at the disruption, looked up quickly and then focused back on his Algebra homework. "I don't really like rain so much."

"Why not," Ellie asked, slightly offended. "It's absolutely beautiful."

"Whenever it rains," Gordie explained, "I have to stay inside."

Ellie sighed and looked back down at her own homework. "You can't take something like that for granted. One day it's going to stop raining and it's not going to come back," she said quietly.

_Being just as naive as I had been when I was twelve, I thought that we actually _were_ talking about the rain_.

"That's impossible, Elle," Gordie said matter-of-factly. "Rain is part of the water cycle and something like that doesn't just stop."

Ellie smiled slightly and looked up. "I guess you're right."

_Ellie graduated from high school as valedictorian and planned on following through on her acceptance to the University of Oregon. She had hopes of studying Biology and becoming a doctor._

_I remembered the conversation we had had about the rain on the night that Ellie told me that she would be leaving for college the next day. It was then that I realized that she had been talking about herself the whole time. Or maybe it was something deeper than that. Maybe she was trying to tell me that nothing lasts forever._

Gordie woke up from a tapping at his window. Groggily he got up and opened the window, faintly seeing red hair that he knew belonged to Ellie. She smiled and came through the window. As she was sitting next to him on his bed, Gordie was ashamed for the first time of the cowboys on his pajamas.

Neither spoke for what seemed like hours but in reality was only minutes.

"I'm leaving for college tomorrow," Ellie broke the silence.

The two looked at each other with obvious sadness.

"I don't know if I'll ever see you guys again," Ellie said as her eyes started to water.

"You'll still come home over the summer," Gordie said awkwardly. He had never had to comfort a crying girl before.

"But that's just it," Ellie said. "My parents are moving to Salem and I'll probably never get to come back here."

For the first time in his life, Gordie had no idea what to say. The two simply looked at each other, hoping that the other would say something. Before they could register what was happening, their faces were inching closer to the other's. Shirts were unbuttoned, clothes came off, and Ellie, who knew what to do, straddled Gordie. The only sounds that could be heard were the bed's light creaking and their deep, heavy breathing.

_Ellie was the first girl I was ever with. She was surprisingly patient with me and for that I was grateful. In college when I got my first steady girlfriend, I was much more confident about the act of sex because I had done it before and with someone that I did love._

_The day after Ellie left, Chris was telling his brother about how proud he was for Ellie going on to college. Somewhere down the line Eyeball decided that he was absolutely in love with her and almost immediately moved to Eugene._

_He kept following her wherever she went and said that he would only leave her alone if she agreed to go on one date with him. Not reciprocating his feelings, Ellie initially told him to fuck off but eventually obliged after he showed up at her dorm. That one date turned into quite a few and he asked her to marry him right before she started her second year. After frequently asking for second opinions from Chris and I, she accepted his proposal. Chris was always proud that it had been Ellie who turned his brother into a responsible human being._

_Out of all my childhood friends, Ellie was the only one that I kept in touch with. I often feel that she was the first person to see me, actually see me. She was beautiful, physically and mentally._


End file.
